Jury views video of New Haven homicide victim being shot in back of head

By Randall Beach

Updated 7:16 pm, Friday, April 27, 2018

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Jury views video of New Haven homicide victim being shot in back of head

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NEW HAVEN — The jurors for the Jean Bruny slaying trial Friday viewed an enhanced surveillance videotape showing Torrance Dawkins being shot at the Cheetah Club during a Saturday night dance party.

The tape, 52 minutes in length, was “tagged” with symbols and it tracked 10 individuals as they moved from room to room and camera to camera at the club on East Street.

The enhancement was done during nearly five months of work by FBI forensic examiner Anthony Imel.

But the black-and-white tape remained rather grainy and it was difficult to see precise details of the moment when a man approached Dawkins from behind and shot him in the back of his head.

Bruny, 26, of Brooklyn, New York, faces a sole charge of murder in Dawkins’ death. Dawkins, a Waterbury resident, was at the club to celebrate his birthday. He died at about 1:23 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2013, approximately 85 minutes after he turned 22.

The tape showed dozens of people coming and going in the crowd, enjoying a night out of drinking and dancing. They quickly scattered and ran out the exits when the shot rang out.

Courtroom spectators, including members of Dawkins’ family, quietly watched the soundless tape on several screens. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Seth Garbarsky occasionally stopped the tape to ask Imel what was being shown.

“That’s the victim entering the club,” Imel told Garbarsky. “I tracked him from the front door.”

Imel initially identified the other individuals he was tracking by numbers and letters rather than by name. He testified that right after the shooting a man identified as MS4 “appeared to have something in his right hand.”

According to the police warrant, three witnesses who viewed the tape identified MS4 as Bruny.

The warrant also stated: “The track of MS4 included images of MS4 approaching the victim from behind and shooting the victim.”

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Michael Sheehan, Imel acknowledged he was given nine hours of the club’s surveillance tapes by an FBI agent who asked him to track individuals considered to be suspects in the shooting.

Imel said the agent provided to him his own analysis and timetable of the crime before Imel began his work on the tapes. But Imel said he and the agent agreed on their conclusions.

During follow-up questioning by Garbarsky, Imel read that agent’s notes about the footage of the homicide: “Jean Bruny shoots Torrance Dawkins and exits.”

In other testimony Friday, one of Bruny’s relatives said he was at the club with “an entourage” that included Bruny. But he testified that at one point, “I had to go to the bathroom” and was in there when the shooting occurred.

“When I left the bathroom, a bouncer said I had to leave,” he testified. “He was telling people: ‘You gotta go.’” The witness said the bouncer didn’t say why.

The witness also told Assistant State’s Attorney Lisa D’Angelo he did not hear any yelling or screaming while he was in the bathroom. He said he didn’t see Bruny again until after the group made it back to Waterbury in separate cars.

The witness also testified he didn’t hear about the shooting until a few days later when “I read about it in the newspaper.”